Slovak News Back to the news
Vazny: European Investment Bank Confirms Validity of D1 Highway Loan
Tuesday 22 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 22 (TASR) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) has confirmed the validity of a €1 billion loan for the construction of Slovakia's D1 motorway, said Transport Minister Lubomir Vazny (Smer-SD) on Tuesday.
The highway is part of the first public-private partnership package. Talks between Slovakia and the EIB regarding technical, environmental and financial conditions are still pending.
According to Vazny, the entire project has been threatened by information published by SME daily, which the minister regards as a "show of stupidity and maliciousness" on SME's part. "The banks involved carefully monitor the conclusion of the D1 project, which could be seriously hampered by information of this kind," he said.
Vazny reproached the daily for publishing what he called a biased article regarding the alleged suspension of the project by the EIB due to its impact on the environment, which is not true. Vazny admitted, however, that motorway construction in Slovakia faces certain environmental problems.
"That's a problem for all motorway constructions. The Natura 2000 framework is so broadly defined in Slovakia that there's no other way to proceed but to initiate highway construction in regional areas and secure all related compensation measures. I'd like some know-all, especially from SME daily, to advise me as where to build highways in Slovakia so that roads will avoid protected areas. There's no such way," emphasised Vazny.
Friends of the Earth-CEPA media representative Irena Jencova said on Monday that the approval process for a loan from EIB for the construction of the D1 highway has been temporarily suspended and that the bank reacted in this way to a complaint from Friends of the Earth-CEPA and SOS-BirdLife Slovakia.
CEPA said that it told the EIB, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the EU Commission about multiple violations of national and international legislation in the planning of a section of the D1 highway.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
